A Big Deal for the Tooth Fairy
by X. J. Kennedy
Tooth Fairy, hear! Tonight’s the night I’ve dreamed about for ages,
For haven’t we kids got a right To rake in living wages?
I’ve tried to work my back teeth loose,
Tied doorknobs (threads—what cop-outs!), But gosh! my jaws just won’t
produce
A quick cash crop of dropouts.
So come prepared to lose a heap In larger trading ventures.
Tonight I lay me down to sleep On top of Grandpop’s dentures.
In the Motel
by X. J. Kennedy
Bouncing! bouncing! on the beds
My brother Bob and I cracked heads—
People next door heard the crack, Whammed on the wall, so we whammed
right back
Dad’s razor caused an overload And wow! did the TV set explode!
Someone’s car backed fast and—tinkle! In our windshield was a wrinkle.
Eight more days on the road? Hooray! What a bang-up holiday!
If Once You Have Slept on an Island by Rachel Field
If once you have slept on an island
You’ll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before And go by the same old name,
You may bustle about in street and shop;
You may sit at home and sew, But you’ll see blue water and wheeling
gulls
Wherever your feet may go.
You may chat with the neighbors of this and that And close to your fire
keep,
But you’ll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell And tides beat through
your sleep.
Oh, you won’t know why, and you can’t say how
Such change upon you came, But—once you have slept on an island
You’ll never be quite the same!
The Night Will Never Stay
by Eleanor Farjeon
The night will never stay, The night will still go by, Though with a
million stars You pin it to the sky;
Though you bind it with the blowing wind And buckle it with the moon,
The night will slip away Like sorrow or a tune.
Questions at Night
by Louis Untermeyer
Why
Is the sky?
What starts the thunder overhead?
Who makes the crashing noise? Are the angels falling out of bed? Are
they breaking all their toys?
Why does the sun go down so soon? Why do the night-clouds crawl Hungrily
up to the new-laid moon And swallow it, shell and all?
If there’s a Bear among the stars As all the people say, Won’t he jump
over those Pasture-bars And drink up the Milky Way?
Does every star that happens to fall Turn into a fire-fly?
Can’t it ever get back to Heaven at all?
And why
Is the sky?
Firefly
by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
Night
by Sara Teasdale
A little light is going by, Is going up to see the sky, A little light
with wings.
I never could have thought of it, To have a little bug all lit And made
to go on wings.
A wolf
I considered myself but
the owls are hooting and
the night I fear.
an Osage Indian song
Stars over snow,
And in the west a planet
Swinging below a star—
Look for a lovely thing and you will find it, It is not far—
It never will be far.
The Falling Star
by Sara Teasdale
I saw a star slide down the sky, Blinding the north as it went by, Too
burning and too quick to hold, Too lovely to be bought or sold, Good
only to make wishes on And then forever to be gone.
The owl hooted, Telling of the morning star. He hooted again, Announcing
the dawn.
a Yuma Indian song
